His Best Buddy
by Skeeterdayz
Summary: Owen had always been going out of his way to make me happy for a long time. And honestly I wasn't complaining. Noah/Owen friendship fic.


**This was just a little fic I wrote from a prompt on tumblr, Noah/Owen friendship**

**Hope you like it!**

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Owen had always been going out of his way to make me happy for a long time.

And honestly I wasn't complaining.

Somehow, in the middle of all this mess Chris McClean tried to call a reality show, Owen had deemed himself my friend. I never remember agreeing to be on that type of relationship level with him, but I guessed my body language somehow established that non verbally. Sure he was a little clingy and more touchy-feely than I was used to, but it was a tolerable level of closeness.

He never said no to anything I asked, (of course I was going to take advantage of his undying loyalty to me) no matter what it was. I could've asked Owen to dive off a cliff with a cinderblock tied to his scrotum and he still probably would've done it for me if it meant he'd make me happy.

I remember one time he saved me extra food from first class, which we definitely weren't allowed to have. He'd smuggled it in his pocket and it was wrapped up tightly in one of the fancy napkins from there as well. Did I want his slightly-smashed vanilla cupcake that had been sitting in his tight pocket all day? No. Was I going to reject it when he handed it to me with the most sincere and puppy dog-looking smile on his face?

...I wanted to. But of course, even I couldn't bring myself to make him upset. Not after everything he's done for me in the past. So I sucked it up and took the little offering with a smile I was trying not to make look fake and a "thanks".

I'll never forget the one time that he did that one thing for me. That one time, where I'd been sleeping in first class after the Jamaica challenge and all I'd felt on my face was a slight nudge from his pudgy finger. We hadn't taken off yet, but we were close to it.

"Hey Noah...pssst! Noah! I got you something!"

I reluctantly opened one of my eyes. Owen was a lot closer than I'd first thought, and he had that same sincere grin on his face that he normally did when he talked to me.

"What is it Owen." I knew I sounded a bit condescending when I'd said that, but honestly I couldn't help sounding that way when I was tired.

Owen reached around arm down onto floor right beside my seat and pulled up a medium-sized object. "Here."

He placed it in my lap and I lazily looked down. Almost instantaneously however, I sat up and took it in my hand.

It was...a conch shell. An actual conch shell. Not a fake one that you could get from any gift store nearby, but a real, pink and white conch shell. It even smelled like sea-water. Conch shells were notably almost impossible to find. Yet I had one sitting right in front of me, real as ever.

I looked back over at Owen, who was anxiously looking me in the eye. "Do you like it?"

I glanced back at the shell. "Owen, how did you get this?"

"Oh, I just snuck off the plane a little while ago and went to go look for one. I remember you saying something about how the only thing about the beach that you used to like was picking up shells. So I thought I'd go out and find you one."

"You actually remembered I said that?"

"Yeah. I mean...why wouldn't I? You say a lot of cool things." He laughed a bit nervously, then smiled again. "Do you like it?"

"...Yeah." I looked down at the shell again. "Owen...trying to find one of these things is the equivalent of trying to find a four leaf clover..." I glanced into his eyes. "How long did it take you to find this?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I dunno...probably like two and a half hours maybe? I kept pick up broken ones, but I kinda figured you'd want something intact. Then it started to get dark so I had to look a little faster." He smiled. "I found it though!"

Owen actually did this for me. He actually went out and looked for a shell in darkness and stayed out until he found one. Just for me.

I noticed that his fingers were slightly red and raw; covered in bandaids on the front and back.

"What happened to your hands?" I asked.

He looked down at them. "Oh, heh. Well when I picked up that shell there was one of those little hermit crabs in it...so I just got it out before I gave it to you. You know, so you wouldn't get snapped at or anything. You're allergic to shellfish right?"

He remembered that too? I told that to him while he was half awake. I brought my hand to my forehead.

"So let me get this straight...you snuck off the plane even though if Chris caught you he would've killed you, you searched for hours until it got dark and when you found this, and then you got your hands mauled just to get a crustacean out of it so it was in a good enough state to give to me?"

Owen nodded. "Yeah. It's no big deal."

"Yes, it is a big deal Owen. You could've gotten kicked off if someone caught you." I sat back in my seat. "I can't believe you actually did this."

"Of course I did...why wouldn't I?" He looked down at his hands again. "I mean...you're the closest thing I've had to best buddy in like forever. I just thought it'd make you happy."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm the closest thing you've had to a friend?"

"Totally!" He answered. "Not everyone wants to hang out with the fat kid in school, you know?"

I rarely ever will admit this, but him telling me that hurt my heart. I didn't always give him the credit he deserved, and apparently he didn't get it back home either. He'd jump through hoops just to keep someone happy he thought was close to him. I realized at that moment the reason that he'd been so nice to me was because he was afraid of losing me.

"...This means a lot, Owen...thanks."

He grinned. He was happy that he'd pleased me. "No problem buddy! Glad you like it!"

Owen climbed from his kneeled position beside my chair and back to his feet. He took his seat on the opposite side of first class with his raw hands in his lap.

"Night Noah." That was the last thing he'd said to me before he almost immediately fallen asleep.

I stared at the conch shell in my hands. It was even a little red with blood from where he'd tried to get the crab out. I squinted. Something was sticking out from inside it's crevice.

Hesitantly, I pulled on what I saw. It was a small, folded slip of paper shoved inside the shell. It obviously had something written on it.

What I read when I unfolded it made me bite my lip. In Owen's scraggly handwriting.

"NOAH AND OWEN, BEST BUDDIES FOREVER."

And then underneath there was a little doodle of me and him, laughing in first class.

Goddammit Owen.

I folded the paper back up. He really didn't give himself enough credit. This guy was fucking amazing and he'd just proved it to me. There he sat with bleeding palms and a smile in his sleep, just because he knew he made me happy.

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**After writing this I'm actually starting to like their friendship, it's kind of sweet. **

**~DUECES**


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